Hard Labour

In spite of the Government instigating a major public austerity drive, Labour still has only a slender lead in the polls, while Mr Miliband has struggled at every turn to take the fight to Mr Cameron and made little impression on a public who perceive him to be bereft of policy ideas.

Not all of this is Mr Miliband’s fault. Labour, a party whose entire raison d’être has been its belief in public spending, now has to redefine itself for an era in which there is no money left to spend, a task which might well prove beyond most leaders.

But in throwing in his lot with the unions and seeming to spurn the idea that the party must appeal to those middle-class voters who gave it three General Election victories under Tony Blair, Mr Miliband has made it all but impossible for Labour to produce any convincing alternative to the Government’s deficit-reduction plan.

Indeed, Mr Miliband cannot even carry his own family with him. Fresh reports of his soured relationship with David and talk of his brother mounting a renewed leadership challenge can only add to the picture of a confused party at war with itself, particularly following new revelations about the feuding between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

In hard economic times, the country needs an Opposition worthy of the name and that will not happen while Labour remains preoccupied with its own problems. Mr Cameron, however, cannot afford complacency. Today Ed Miliband will begin to articulate a new vision. The only question is whether his party will give him the opportunity to see it to fruition.